This site contains comments and articles on current issues affecting us,Malaysians.
They views expressed are my own, gained through experience over the years,as an ordinary citizen who worked as a doctor and then a surgeon and retired as such.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Sex parties : Where are we heading?

Educate to arrest declining morals

It was appalling to read of the planned mega sex party to usher in the New Year. We wonder what has gone wrong with our younger generation who yearn for such immoral behavior that we often condemned as a culture of the West. Indulging in immoral activities is nothing new as they have been going on since the existence of man but by enlarge they have been on the quiet as such activities were abhorred by society. It is shocking that now such activities are being commercialized and organized openly with little respect to our own cultural restraints.

While we have been condemning the West we failed to realize that such immoral activities have been slowly taking roots in our own society. We continued to be in a state of denial that such activities are alien to our own Asian cultures. Even now we say that this mega sex party planned is a hoax which well may be but it should be an alarm that indicates that morality among Malaysians is definitely on the decline and it is time for us to see where we have gone wrong.

The two institutions that are vital in instilling good moral values are the family and the school. The declining morality among our youth is an indication that both these institutions are failing.

It is not surprising that with the rising divorce and separation of parents, the family unit is severe strain. The integrity of the family unit, which was once a pride of our culture, is slowly but surely breaking down. With parents separated and divorced and bitter with each other how can good morals be instilled in their children?

The influence of the West is undoubtedly a contributing factor but we too should take the blame, as we had not actively strived to strengthen our own system which placed great emphasis on families ties, respect for the elders, sanctity of marriage and care of children.

Sadly we have allowed the culture of greed and selfishness to become the guiding principles for success and happiness. In the pursuit of wealth and more wealth, we traded in the established moral values that were the hallmark of our cultures. Today we are judged by the amount of wealth we have not by the virtues we possess. The media glorifies and idolizes the rich and glamorous, never mind if they are living immoral lives. It is sad that these idols have become the role models for our youth.

In the pretext of promoting individual freedom, many are breaching the norms of morality. Individual freedom may be important but it should be within limits. Absolute individual freedom without regards for morally and socially accepted behavior should be aggressively resisted.

There is a need to re-emphasize the importance of the family unit. Every effort must be made to educate parents on inculcating good morals in the children by their own examples. It is a responsibility that is too important to be abdicated to others.

Of late the indiscipline and immorality among school children are also on the rise. As parents we can see that the level of discipline among our children is definitely not at par to that when we students once. Teachers today are too busy with unnecessary activities that they are not able to give full attention to their pupils. The quality of teachers too has deteriorated as many take up the job as a means of income when it should have been a vocation.

Ideally schools should be places where our children get a wholesome education, where apart from academic excellence, good morals and character building are also given paramount importance. Unfortunately politicization, commercialization and privatization have all adversely affected the education system where our schools have become places to merely secure maximum As.

Of late Malaysians of all faiths may have become more religious but are we becoming morally more righteous? It is sad that we have become more attracted to the rituals of our faith rather than their essence that propagate good moral behavior as the basis of all human activities. Will enforcing strict religious fundamentals help improve morality among the young? Extremism in any forms either religious or freedom to do whatever one likes will not be the right way. What we need to do is to choose a path of moderation that will be attractive to the youth.

Outright banning of immoral activities and punishing those indulging in them may not be able to totally deter our youth from staying away from such vice. What is a needed is to educate them on the importance of good and decent behavior at all times. At the same time no effort must be spared to educate and emphasize on the importance of maintaining the integrity family unit, which is extremely vital in upholding morality.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Dear Dr. Chris,

A very good article indeed. Well done. I too was much troubled and appalled at reading about all these serious social problems plaguing our present day younger generation. We are always quick to blame the west for the moral decadance in our society when we are actually to be blamed for our own action. But these recent incidents surpasses all the rest put together in term of its seriousness. And the big question is how come the religious teachings our children are receiving both at home and school don't seem to have any effect on them? How come these youngsters are not God fearing to indulge in such disgusting immoral activities throwing to the winds all the cultural and religious values that were inculcated in them from young?

So how can we be proud of our other achivements when our youngsters are devoid of good moral values to become future leaders to lead the nation?Just a few unbiased comments that came spontaneously from my heart.

How our children end up is actually the "programming" done by the parents...they are the main culprit. They take no responsibility for bringing up a human being. Many of the excuses that Lee Lee hears when the parents bring their misbehaving children to the clinic is that they cannot do anything about it. If the parents claimed they cannot do anything about it then who CAN??

I find it strange that we have standards for doing everything. We have to pass a driving test to ride a bike, we have to obtain some form of a licence to sell something on the roadside, as a hawker we make them obtain a licence to hawk food, to set up a kindergarden we have to obtain various licences YET THE MOST IMPORTANT RESPONSIBILITY IN LIFE WE DO NOT NEED A LICENCE. Anyone can have a child regardless of whether he/she has the "qualifications" to bring up a child. This country which prides itself as an Islamic country even allows non "married" couples to have children without a blink of an eye.

Then we see parents setting bad behaviour for their children to follow. They drive their little kids in their cars and they drive across traffic lights which are already RED, go against "no-entry" signs, park their cars right at the spot where there is a "no-parking" sign, stop their cars right in the middle of the road and obstructing traffic behind just so that they can get the hawker to "ta pau" their food.

The question is what sort of behaviour do you think the child will exhibit as an adult. He will say my mum & dad used to do it, there is nothing wrong with it.

dear sir, im a teenager myself..21yrs old...i know that all these parties and stuffs are inapropriate..

in my opinion, all parents do what they are supposed to do but in the end everything comes down to the teens themselves!

i went through all the stages, friends who smoke and drink..friends who have sex for fun.

nowadays everything has changed, we are not in the 60's anymore..nut i managed not to get myself into all these immoral activities because i know it will ruin my future and i do not want to disappoint my parents..

am i not true?we cant blame the rest when the teens themselves want these?

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About Me

A practicing surgeon by profession.A medical doctor since 1978.
My firm belief is that we must change ourselves first before we try to change others.If only everyone changes to become a better person,the world will be an ideal place.